Wright travels the world over summer break

Gym teacher, Kent Wright, told me all the activities of what he did this summer. All the way from marathons to going across the world to help other children.

Lexie Rutan : “Coach Wright, how was your summer?”

Coach Wright : “It was a wonderful summer. I enjoyed it immensely.”

Lexie Rutan : “What all did you do?”

Coach Wright: “The end of May I left for Uganda. I spent ten days in Uganda raisin money for Compassion International, raised $10,000 for sponsor a child stuff. I ran a marathon.”

Lexie Rutan : “What is Compassion International?”

Coach Wright: “Compassion International is probably one of the largest organizations in the world as far as raising money for children for extreme poverty; you sponsor a child and you help them with education, food, clothing, etc.”

Lexie Rutan : “What made you want to do that?”

Coach Wright : “I am involved in a Christian organization, and some of things they try to stress is extreme poverty, and the other one is human trafficking and sex trade. We raise money for the organization in ten days. With the people there we raised over two million dollars for Compassion International.”

Lexie Rutan : “You said you ran a marathon, when was that?”

Coach Wright : “It was in Uganda. We got people to sponsor us and used the money to sponsor the kids. It was a pretty tough marathon.”

Lexie Rutan : “Did you end up running the whole marathon?”

Coach Wright: “I ended up walking some, pretty much everybody walked. It was 6,000 feet in the mountains. 90 degrees, it was very hilly. Plus, it was really different: it was not a competition. The little kids lined the streets and there would be four or five kids holding on to your hands running with you for a little bit with no shoes on. All they wanted was water. It was more of an emotional thing than competition.”

Lexie Rutan : “What made you want to do the marathon?”

Coach Wright: “I never have ran a marathon in my life, the most I’ve done was 13.1 miles. I was signed up to do half a marathon, but I just wanted to do the whole thing. I went to the Rocky Mountains in Canada after, and I run extreme character challenges for a Christian organization. From there I flew to France, and climbed the Pyrenees. From there I flew back to Africa, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.”

Lexie Rutan : “How long did that take, Mount Kilimanjaro?”

Coach Wright : “It was a ten day trip. The actual climb took six days to climb up and two days to climb down.”

Lexie Rutan : “Did you prepare yourself for all those climbs?”

Coach Wright : “I am always prepared, I am in shape all the time. All the extreme character challenges, I was climbing mountains. I usually do eight to ten of the climbs every year. Always prepared to climb and hike. It was just the running I wasn’t really prepared for.”

Lexie Rutan : “Mount Kilimanjaro, did you just climb that for the fun of it?”

Coach Wright : “It was originally for the Christian organization. That was what I was supposed to do instead of the marathon, but the dates were messed up. Everybody who sponsored me, sponsored me for the climb. I went back and paid for it myself.”

Lexie Rutan : “Would you go back and climb that same mountain?”

Coach Wright : “Oh I would change it up. I already did that one. It’s time to go to a harder one.One of the most things I am proudest of is, I came home and ran a Spartan race and won, for my age group. Eighth out of 2700 people.”

Coach Wright is one of our many staff members who went on amazing trips this past summer. Check out our Back to School video that the teachers made to see where the others went!